Bevington Has His Deal--next Quest Is Respect

After zooming out to a 40-21 record on June 10, the Sox played sub-.500 baseball the rest of the season, finishing only eight games over .500 and 14 1/2 games behind Cleveland in the American League's Central Division.

So even though the Sox were in the wild-card race until the last weekend, Reinsdorf said he understood why Sox fans were still reluctant to support the team in August and September.

"You can't con White Sox fans," he said. "Maybe with other fans . . . but (Sox fans) did not like what they saw."

Which brings us to the peculiar case of Terry Bevington, who received a new two-year contract Saturday to manage the Sox through '98, ending weeks of speculation over his fate. Bevington was the Sox's second choice to manage the team in '97, surviving only because Jim Leyland turned down a lucrative offer to manage the Florida Marlins instead.

Reinsdorf said last week Bevington hadn't been his top pick to manage in '96, either. He preferred Tony La Russa but let General Manager Ron Schueler make the call. If Bevington wasn't the first choice in '96 or '97, why did he get a two-year deal to return?

"I think it sends a message to our players and fans that we have confidence in him and that he can lead us to a championship," Schueler said.

Several Sox players and many Sox fans have voiced doubt about Bevington's ability to take them to that promised land. His handling of the pitching staff remains suspect, and he was at the controls when this year's team crashed and burned in the second half, blowing a 4 1/2-game mid-August wild-card lead.

The bullpen was largely to blame for the downfall, setting a major-league record with 33 blown saves. Whether Bevington overused his young arms early is arguable. But it's undeniable that setup men Bill Simas and Matt Karchner struggled as the season wore on and were continuously tossed back into the fire.

Bevington's main fault as manager is neither his unwillingness to deal with the media--a problem he and Schueler say will be corrected--nor his quirky strategical moves that sometimes backfire. It is his reluctance to audible when a problem crops up. That's what hurt the Sox in '96. Whether it was sticking so long with Karchner or Simas as setup men, or with Joe Magrane and Kirk McCaskill as "spot" fifth starters, he consistently refused to make changes until given no other option.

Magrane, for example, was given eight starts, going 0-5 with a 6.59 earned-run average. Asked after one brutal Magrane outing whether a change was being considered, Bevington shot back, "You're wasting my time" for asking such a question.

Sure, many Sox fans will be perturbed that Bevington is back. But few real fans stop attending games because they don't care for the manager. History tells us Reinsdorf won't allow Chicago fans or the media to dictate his organization's decisions, whether it concerns the Sox or the Bulls. Harold Baines, Jack McDowell and Charles Oakley were all traded away, La Russa and Doug Collins were both fired, Horace Grant and Julio Franco were allowed to leave town with nothing in return.

Bevington needs to regain the respect of many of his players, after leaving on the final day of the season without saying goodbye, or thanks, to most of them. His relationship with his players needs improvement. During the season, one Sox regular was asked how he and Bevington got along. "OK, I guess," he replied. "He never talks to me." Bevington doesn't have to be their buddy, but he does have to have players want to play for him.

Some think an added year of experience will mellow Bevington and soften his personality around a media he seems to dislike and distrust. Now that upper management has scolded him for being so short-tempered with the media, there's speculation that a new, lemon-scented Bevington will patrol the Sox dugout next year.

Maybe so. Maybe not.

In the long run, it's probably in Bevington's best interest to be himself and hope everyone accepts him for that. No one is perfect. One thing he should remember is this: You can't con Sox fans.